WineXpert Question about LE Australia Grenache and Cab with Grape Skin

[Trick]

WE Eclipse and LE kits w/skins, are all 16L plus skins. WE Eclipse and LE kits w/o skins are 18L. After racking a skin kit over from primary to secondary you typically lose about 1.5L of sludge, requiring about two bottles of wine to get it topped back up. When you add the cost of two similar bottles of wine onto the original price of the kit, WE premium skin kits aren't the great deal they first appear to be.

That was exactly what I experienced. Actually, it will be even worse in my case. I topped up with two bottles after stabilization and fining agent addition. and after one week of clarification, the sludge thickness already reaches 1 inch. Looks like two more bottles top-up might be required. After that, I should call it Grenache/Cab/Merlot.

Now it looks pitch black and is completely opaque, any idea how can I tell when it is clear enough for next racking?

 

[Brian55]

That was exactly what I experienced. Actually, it will be even worse in my case. I topped up with two bottles after stabilization and fining agent addition. and after one week of clarification, the sludge thickness already reaches 1 inch. Looks like two more bottles top-up might be required. After that, I should call it Grenache/Cab/Merlot.

Now it looks pitch black and is completely opaque, any idea how can I tell when it is clear enough for next racking?

I no longer use clarifiers. After stabilizing, I let it sit at least 20 days before racking again, usually closer to 30. Then during bulk aging over the next year or so, a bit more will drop out, but nothing significant.

 

[Brian55]

I have been fermenting my eclipse kits fully in the bucket and have noticed a better sludge compaction. I remove the skins at SG 1.000 and then put it under airlock for about 10 days. This makes them barely tolerable for me. RJS WS are much easier to work with IMHO. Never made one of the showcase kits but do have one due up early next year. fingers crossed

cheers

In my experience, Showcase has been almost identical to the Eclipse line.

 

[Trick]

I no longer use clarifiers. After stabilizing, I let it sit at least 20 days before racking again, usually closer to 30. Then during bulk aging over the next year or so, a bit more will drop out, but nothing significant.

I thought about using time as the clarifier at the beginning. However, after hesitation for while, I picked the middle way by reducing the dose of the fining agent by half. Hope that can help clarifying better before bulk aging while retaining more TDS in the wine.
i will try the time-only method next time. Thx for the input.

 

[Smok1]

This grenache seems to be a slow clearing wine, i have 7 carboys aging right now and the grenache is by far the slowest.

 

[Cibb]

anyone leaving theirs on the skins longer than the 7 days that's recommended?

 

[Brian55]

anyone leaving theirs on the skins longer than the 7 days that's recommended?

Yep, 17 days.

 

[Hordak]

I did about 5 weeks I believe.

 

[Trick]

anyone leaving theirs on the skins longer than the 7 days that's recommended?

I did 10 days total skin contact, 3 days pre-soaking with pectic enzyme and 7 days fermentation. I tired to do extended maceration. Unfortunately, the fermentation went so fast and out of my control. As a result, I had to stop primary at day 7 after yeast inoculation as the SG was really too low to stay in the primary. I was just afraid it will expose to oxygen once CO2 production slowed down. I wish I could have a big mouth carboy to allow keeping the skin in without worrying about too much about oxygen exposure. Maybe I should have kept the temperature lower instead of following the instruction.

 

[Trick]

Today, the wine becomes a kind of clear (by using a flash light from the opposite side). I took a sample. Very surprised to see the color of the wine is quite light. Maybe the effort to extract the color didn't work? Or it is because of the Grenache? But the flavor is pretty strong! Tart, bitter, astringent. Has the sign of a bold wine. It is understandable the harshness due to the young age.
I will wait for a couple of more weeks before another racking and adding oak cubes.

 

[Smok1]

Today, the wine becomes a kind of clear (by using a flash light from the opposite side). I took a sample. Very surprised to see the color of the wine is quite light. Maybe the effort to extract the color didn't work? Or it is because of the Grenache? But the flavor is pretty strong! Tart, bitter, astringent. Has the sign of a bold wine. It is understandable the harshness due to the young age.
I will wait for a couple of more weeks before another racking and adding oak cubes.

Mine is quite light as well (using flashlight from back side) i started the LE16 Cabernet Franc a few weeks earlier than the grenache kit and its quite a bit darker.

 

[jgmann67]

Is it close to where it should be?

 

[Smok1]

I dont see grenache or cab franc on there

 

[SouthernChemist]

Sort of reminds me of a Shiraz/Grenache limited edition kit from a few years ago (I believe it was a Kenridge Showcase 2014). The color of the wine was a bit lighter than I expected...almost looking like a darker rose depending on the lighting, and I remember reading others say the same thing back then.

 

[jgmann67]

I dont see grenache or cab franc on there

They have the GSM blend there, second to last row, second one in.

 

[Trick]

My color is close to Pinot more than GSM.
But taste is nowhere close to Pinot.

 

[Cibb]

Just racked mine and the color so far is good but it has a lot of clearing to do so we shall see. I haven't tried to taste it yet I intend to do that next week after it clears more.

 

[Trick]

mine is quite clear now. the flash light is visible clearly from the opposite side. plan to rack and oak this weekend.

 

[J-Hat]

Has anyone started drinking this kit yet? Any disappointment or thrills?

 

[Smok1]

Has anyone started drinking this kit yet? Any disappointment or thrills?

I have, its still in a carboy, id have to check the start date but i believe its around 3 months now, we drew a few samples last weekend. It was ok, to be honest the cabernet franc LE16 was quite a bit more impressive.